I was actually pretty disappointed tonight. The only parts that felt original to me were the first 15 minutes, where Jack is playing Grandpa with his granddaughter. The rest of these 2 hours felt like James Horner's music: it's like the writers took the scripts to seasons 1-7, threw them up in the air, and restructured them in the order in which they fell.

So many moments tonight were directly copied from at least 1 instance in another season.

Looney Bin Jim shooting the guy's wife in the leg is a direct callback to Jack shooting Robocop's wife in the exact same spot.

Freddy Prinze Jr and Starbuck was almost a copy of Tony and Michelle.

President Taylor and the Indian President are just like Presidents Logan and Suvarov in Season 5

The list goes on.

I'm totally fine with homages. Each time Jack says "damn it" or kills someone brutally, that's cool. Each time James Bond says "Bond, James Bond" or orders a vodka martini, that's cool. I argue that the spoilered stuff that I listed up there is not an homage, but a blatant plot rehash. It'd be like the next James Bond movie having a villain named Silverfinger who plans to infect Fort Knox with radiation. That's not an homage, it's a ripoff.

It just didn't feel like I was watching anything new. It's like the writers ran out of material 1-2 years ago, and new scripts are just cut-and-paste jobs. Like that episode of The Simpsons where Marge had this dress that she changes ever-so-slightly every few days so that people think she has something new.

wasn't the best opener but it was pretty good and can't wait for tonight. wasn't too psyched about freddie prinze being in the show but his character seems cool and likable. hastings is a dumbass and hopefully he'll be fired soon and i wonder what renee walshs big secret is? former stripper,crack whore, pornstar?

That's how I'm thinking. Between the fact that she's been going through severe trauma for over a year now, attempted to commit suicide, and they have her wearing black make-up under her eyes, it'd only make sense that the character would've undergone severe weight loss from all that stress.